Dallas police officer, family hope for new heart for 2-year-old son

Dallas police Officer Patrick Jones and his wife, Shellie, know that in order to save their young son’s life, someone else will have to lose theirs.

“We know that means that somebody else is going to be grieving,” said Jones, a Dallas native who joined the force in 2008 and works at the city’s central patrol station.

His son Sawyer, who turns 2 on Monday, has a diseased heart. The child has been at Children’s Medical Center Dallas since Aug. 21, where he spends every day with air-filled twin tubes coming out of his chest. The U-shaped ventricular assist device, or VAD, pumps blood to his body now that the toddler’s heart is too weak to do it.

“It’s his life support,” his father said.

About six weeks before Sawyer’s birth, the couple learned that he had two holes in his heart, but doctors determined that surgery wasn’t required. Sawyer and his 4-year-old brother, Parker, were both adopted through Fort Worth’s Gladney Center.

Shortly after Sawyer’s birth on Dec. 2, 2011, doctors found that he was suffering from cardiomyopathy — disease of the heart muscle. Doctors sent him home on heart medication.

“When he was born, he was diagnosed, so we always knew this day was coming,” Shellie Jones said. “It was just a matter of when.”

Touch of home

For more than a year, Sawyer seemed to be doing well. He grew into a robust and cheerful toddler.

“You wouldn’t have known he even had an issue,” Patrick Jones said.

Outward appearances were deceiving, however.

“The left side pumps blood to all the major organs, and his left was overworking, so it caused his heart to enlarge,” Patrick Jones said. “His heart was two times the size it was supposed to be in his chest.”

In August, Sawyer’s condition worsened. He became lethargic and couldn’t kick a persistent cold. His parents put him in the hospital.

“The first couple of weeks were tough because he got an infection,” Patrick Jones said. “He swelled up like two times his size and had to put him on a machine” to remove fluid.

The family’s routine now revolves around caring for Sawyer at the hospital.

His mother typically stays with him during the day, doing her work from a laptop. His father usually spends his days off at the hospital to give his wife a break. They rotate the night shift. The times when all four are together are few.

“We’re handling it a lot better than I thought we would,” Shellie Jones said.

But it’s tough to explain to Parker why his “best friend and playmate” can’t come home, his mother said. And Parker has his own set of medical problems: He was recently diagnosed with high-functioning autism.

Meanwhile, Shellie and Patrick have done everything possible to give Sawyer’s room a touch of home. A Winnie the Pooh tricycle, which Sawyer takes great glee in being driven around on, sits in one corner. Mickey Mouse images decorate the walls and glass doors.

Still, Sawyer’s hospital room is far from Disney World. Visitors must don hospital gowns and gloves and use hand sanitizer before entering.

Birthday wish

On a recent day, the chunky-cheeked toddler with lively chocolate eyes and long eyelashes seemed blissfully unmindful of the tubes and wires attached to his body.

A feeding tube trails out of his nose. A central catheter line protrudes from one arm. Blood visibly pumps through the VAD, also known as a Berlin Heart. Thick hospital dressing holds the bulky VAD in place.

Clad in Mickey Mouse nightwear, Sawyer munched on Goldfish and seemed mesmerized by cartoons. He babbled and happily played with his father’s cellphone and a stethoscope.

Sawyer receives daily physical therapy to help him build up his strength. The other day, he took as many as 20 steps, his father said.

“The doctors are really surprised at how well he’s doing now,” his mother said.

Beyond the concerns for their son’s health, however, the Joneses are facing tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Once Sawyer has the transplant, for example, the anti-rejection medications will run the couple about $1,500 a month, or $18,000 annually.

“A lot of people think once you have a transplant you’re done, but there’s always a chance that your body could reject it, so you have to take that medicine for the rest of your life,” Shellie Jones said.

In recent months, Patrick Jones’ family in blue has also stepped up to the plate. The Dallas Police Association’s Assist the Officer Foundation got a private donor to give the family $5,000. The Dallas Fraternal Order of Police held a fund-raiser that raised $8,000.

Meanwhile, as the family celebrates Sawyer’s second birthday, they anxiously hope that a heart soon becomes available.

“It’d be a nice birthday present,” Shellie Jones said.

AT A GLANCE: HOW TO HELP

Donations can be made online through the Assist the Officer Foundation at atodallas.org. Click on “donate now” and enter “Jones family.” Donations can also be mailed to the foundation at 1412 E. Griffin St., Dallas, TX 75215. Put “attn: Jones family” on the envelope.

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